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CAMHSweb: A new tool for helping young people manage their mental health problems

The Evidence Based Practice Unit’s CAMHSweb platform gives children and young people an opportunity to explore their feelings, set goals and measure their progress during mental health treatment.

It’s being trialled in nearly 30 services (made up of 94 clinical teams) across England. One of the newest services to join the project is Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

They’re just beginning to use CAMHSweb with school age children in west Norfolk and have been featured talking about the platform on their local radio station.

Dr Jessica Austin, Lead Clinical Psychologist with the West Norfolk Family and Young Person's Service, said: "This exciting project will make a huge difference to the recovery of many young people across west Norfolk, and we are delighted to be taking part in the pilot."

She added: “CAMHSweb is a fantastic tool which helps young people feel more in control of their mental health care. It gives them the chance to personalise their treatment and express their thoughts in a variety of different ways. For example, they can doodle their goals and create avatars of the people in their lives, then, using one of the tools they can place them on a target showing how close and how supportive they are to the individual's recovery.”

The platform aims to support service users to become more actively involved in decisions about their care and gives them an opportunity to provide feedback on the services they have received.

It includes a number of creative online tools to help young people to discuss their strengths and relationships with their therapist, as well as allowing young people to log in between sessions so they can carry on tracking their feelings when they’re at home.

Louise Ellis, Project Coordinator, said “CAMHSweb has received such an amazing response from pilot sites and the engagement and motivation to trial the platform across services has been incredible."